Barbara KrugerFemale American Collage Artist

Biography Born: 1945, Newark, New Jersey, America.

After attending Syracuse University, the School of Visual Arts, and studying art and design with Diane Arbus at Parson’s School of Design in New York, Kruger obtained a design job at Condé Nast Publications.

Working for Mademoiselle Magazine, she was quickly promoted to head designer. Later, she worked as a graphic designer, art director, and picture editor in the art departments at House and Garden, Aperture, and other publications.

This background in design is evident in the work for which she is now internationally renowned.

She has taught at the California Institute of Art, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the University of California, Berkeley. She lives in New York and Los Angeles.

Artist PracticeShe layers found photographs from existing sources with pithy and aggressive text that involves the viewer in the struggle for power and control that her captions speak to. In their trademark black letters against a slash of red background, her instantly recognizable slogans are designed and pitched as advertisements.

Themes & ConceptsMuch of her text questions the viewer about…

feminism

classicism

consumerism

and individual autonomy and desire

…although her black-and-white images are culled from the mainstream magazines that sell the very ideas she is disputing. As well as appearing in museums and galleries worldwide, Kruger’s work has appeared on billboards, buses, posters, a public park, a train station platform in Strasbourg, France, and in other public commissions.

Untitled (Your Body Is A Battleground) by Barbara Kruger (1989).Barbara Kruger explores

feminist theory through artistic expression. The problematic social norms that arise from patriarchy are exposed through her designs. In much of Kruger’s work, she reveals concepts with such an impact that the viewer is forced to further consider her or his own opinions and perceptions in relation to these issues.

Photographic silkscreen on vinyl (284.5 x 284.5cm).

Untitled (Your Body Is A Battleground) by Barbara Kruger (1989).Kruger also works with the

subject of the gaze and its relation to male power. Through the gaze, men are able to gain control over the bodies of women, creating a tension between the two sexes. Kruger ties this to a critique of consumerism, in that everything in Euro-American culture can be bought, sold, and owned. This ideology extends to relationships amongst individuals further causing struggles over control and power.

Photographic silkscreen on vinyl (284.5 x 284.5cm).

Artist TalkClick below to view a YouTube video on

a talk by Barbara Kruger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP7hbDkJql8

Kruger’s ArtworksClick to view a YouTube video of Kruger

artworks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpjGISvBSpM

Homework: Analyse one of Kruger’s work using the frame (one of the frames or the conceptual) you believe it best fits into, using no less than 500 words.